Sowing the seeds of a passion

by Courtney O'Brien
Thousands of vibrantly coloured orbs sway joyfully in the carefully planted rows at Warraview, a dahlia farm south of Warragul.
Each dazzling bloom has an equally dazzling name. Fancy Pants, Top Hat, Lady Catherine, Tinker Bell, Little Angel, Sassy Susan, Devon Blaze and Winkie Volcano are just a few.
John Rowe walks the rows, moving from flower to flower, giving the origin, name, history and demand of each.
Vikki Rowe describes her husband as a dahlia encyclopedia, with a vast and almost photographic knowledge of every single bloom.
"That one there has become very famous, everyone wants it and when we released it - which we were a bit foolish, we should have kept it another year, to have another 50 to release - we put $40 per tuber, and it sold out in three minutes."
John points to what is the blackest dahlia in Australia, raised in 2021.
It was John's late father's pick of the seedlings for that year and is aptly named Warraview Brian's Choice.
It was through Brian that John's passion for dahlias began.
Decades ago, John took a dozen from Brian's garden to keep them going after Brian moved.
Although, the bud of John's love for the flowers didn't fully bloom until he lost one special dahlia.
"I joined the dahlia society hoping to find this absolutely amazing dahlia. Joined it. Opened up another thousand dahlias. But I never found that one," John said.

"I found all these other nice ones. So, I went from having 12, to the next year, I think I had 28, the next year I had 52, to then, I think it was 128..."
"And now its two and a half thousand."

Breeding, showing and growing dahlias is now a full-time endeavour for John and Vikki.
In their breeding patch, flowers have been individually hand-pollinated to produce specific new and quality cultivars.
John is ruthless, picking, pulling out and discarding blooms that to the untrained eye look perfect.
"I'm not happy with these. I hand pollinated all of these and I'm only probably going to keep three or four out of about 50 or 60," said John, disappointed.
In the show patch, 400 varieties, collected over 30 years, grow large and wild, some from around the world and some from closer to home.
"Some of these have been in our family for over 40 years and they're still going," he proudly declared.
The largest flower shows in Victoria are held in Melbourne, Shepparton, Portland and Welshpool.
These shows give the couple a chance to display their newly bred and quality cultivars.
It also gives gardeners and collectors the chance to see and delight in the beauties they can grow at home.
"People get to see them and they want to buy them," explained John, adding that 75 per cent of the business is selling tubers.
In autumn the tubers are dug up, stored and labeled, resting over winter.
In the springtime John and Vikki pack and post the tubers across the country to their online buyers.
Cut flowers make up 25 per cent of the business.
John cuts, Vikki bunches, and they sell them at local markets in summer and early autumn, before frost puts an end to the season.
The unpredictability of new cultivars, breeding winning blooms and inspiring others keeps John passionate about the business.
"When you collect that seed and you dry it out, there might be 30 seeds in that seed pod, and when you grow those 30 seeds, you'll end up with 30 different colours. They don't grow true to form, so it's the surprise of seeing what's going to pop out; and getting that really good one that the public is going to like," John said.
"We've bred some that are really famous now and people love them; and when you breed that one, it's a real thrill."
Tubers can be purchased online from mid-September onward, and locals can purchase from the farm gate. More than 450 varieties of dahlia can be viewed online at www.warraviewdahlias.com.